to show the method of
reasoning in this case I have taken a series illustrating the general
form of an unknown bird.

There can be no reasonable doubt that the decoration of the food basin
shown in plate CXXXVII, _a_, represents a bird, and analogy would
indicate that it is the picture of some mythologic personage. It has a
round head (figure 272), to which is attached a headdress, which we
shall later show is a highly modified feather ornament. On each side
of the body from the region of the neck there arise organs which are
undoubtedly wings, with feathers continued into arrowpoints. The
details of these wings are very carefully and, I may add,
prescriptively worked out, so that almost every line, curve, or zigzag
is important. The tail is composed of three large feathers, which
project beyond two triangular extensions, marking the end of the body.

The technic of this figure is exceedingly complicated and the colors
very beautiful. Although this bowl was quite badly broken when
exhumed, it has been so cleverly mended by Mr Henry Walther that no
part of the symbolism is lost.

While it is quite apparent that this figure represents a bird, and
while this identification is confirmed by Hopi testimony, it is far
from a realistic picture of any known bird with which the ancients
could have been familiar. It is highly conventionalized and idealized
with significant symbolism, which is highly suggestive.

[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CXXXVIII

FOOD BOWLS WITH FIGURES OF BIRDS FROM SIKYATKI]

Bearing in mind the picture of this bird, we pass to a second form
(plate CXXXVIII, _a_), in which we can trace the same parts without
difficulty. On a round head is placed a feathered headdress. The
different parts of the outstretched wings are readily homologized even
in details in the two figures. There are, for instance, two terminal
wing feathers in each wing; the appendages to the shoulder exist in
both, and the lateral spurs, exteriorly and interiorly, are
represented with slight modifications.

[Illustration: FIG. 272--Man-eagle]

The body is ornamented in the same way in both figures. It is
continued posteriorly on each side into triangular extensions, and the
same is true of its anterior, which in one figure has three curved
lines, and in the other a simple crook. There are three tail-feathers
in each figure. I believe there can be no doubt that both these
designs repr